San Bernardino celebrates completion of 215 Freeway widening

Traffic flows along the northbound side of the 215 Freeway in San Bernardino on Friday. A seven-year, $647 million widening project includes 15 new bridges, four new lanes, two flyovers and the reconstruction of 34 ramps.
photos by JOHN VALENZUELA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

SAN BERNARDINO >> The completion of the 7.5-mile 215 Freeway-widening project will open up the city’s Westside, and boost the east side as well, civic leaders and real estate experts said Friday during ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the $647 million project.

“No more ‘Berlin Wall.’” Assemblywoman Cheryl R. Brown, D-San Bernardino, said at the completion celebration of the widening project.

For the first time in more than 50 years, San Bernardino’s Westside is unified with the eastern side of the freeway, through a freeway exit at Base Line.

Brown said that after the freeway initially came through town, replacing Route 66, “our community (the Westside) died.”

Mayor Pat Morris said that the completed project will have an uplifting effect citywide and will mean increased value and marketability for some 20 land parcels once owned by the city’s disbanded Redevelopment Agency.

The fruits of this project will be visible, especially along Base Line, “before the end of the year,” Morris said.

Some warehousing, retailing and high-density housing will result from the project’s completion, he said.

“This project has improved ‘connectiveness’ for San Bernardino,” said Fran Inman, a senior vice president with Industry-based Majestic Realty Co. and a California transportation commissioner.

The project’s completion sends out a message to businesses that San Bernardino is ready — businesses crave access and the seven-year project has helped boost San Bernardino’s profile, she said.

She declined to predict what kinds of projects might be coming to the Westside.

During the celebration, which was themed to mimic Hollywood award ceremonies, former San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Tribal Chairman James Ramos, now a county supervisor, fired a heavily padded toy arrow into the midsection of Morris.

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The mayor, who is wrapping up his eight-year run at the helm of San Bernardino, brought the toy bow and six arrows to the event, saying they were used in “The Hunger Games” movies.

After the arrow incident, Ramos said San Bernardino has been brought “together from east to west.”

The result will be “a unified voice” and more jobs, he said.

“The new I-215 set the stage for growth, created economic opportunity and helped Southern Californians get back to work,” Federal Highway Deputy Administrator Greg Nadeau, said at the event.

“This project will rejuvenate a community and connect parts of this city that have been separated for decades,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a prepared statement.

The project represents “15 years of planning and design, plus seven long years of construction that occurred while heavy freeway traffic continued to flow,” said Bill Jahn, president of San Bernardino Associated Governments, the transportation planning agency for the county also known as SanBAG.

Morris said the project was a “magnificent example” of public-private partnerships.

“We now have one of the nation’s most elaborate, efficient, and safe freeway systems passing through the heart of San Bernardino County,” said Jahn.

During the ribbon-cutting, civic leaders joined in the chant: “It’s a Great Day in San Bernardino.”